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selenakFull subject title, which Semagic didn't accept was: Forget about it: Magical solutions for Life, Universe and Everything by Regina and Willow. I swear this subject was given to me before a certain OuaT episode was broadcast. However, it's impossible to talk about without spoilers, so without further ado:
You know, it did occur to me that the curse in the way Regina originally intended it to work (Rumpelstilskin's agenda in creating it is irrelevant for this post, as she didn't figure that one out until much later) has overtones of not one but several of Willow's activities, and not just during her brief Dark Willow phase. More than that: as her dream in Restless makes clear, years and years of ridicule and powerless high school hell as well as, if Gingerbread is anything to go buy, a dominating mother very skilled at pointing out inadequacies have left Willow with the deep seated conviction that her geeky pilot-of-BTVS self is nothing anyone (other than Xander) could ever love, and still there, underneath the cool college and magic exterior, waiting to be exposed. Now as opposed to Regina, Willow doesn't spend years trying to make people miserable, she spends years in the world saving business out of friendship and idealism, but she does develop a tendency to (try) to use magic as a solution to emotional problems, first highlighted in Something Blue, when she's looking for a spell to make all her pain over Oz' departure go away instead of having to wade through her misery day after day. Or maybe even before that, in Wild at Heart, where she comes close to putting a spell on Oz and Verucca for their betrayal but ultimately abstains.
Geeky schoolgirl Willow, to Willow, was a ridiculed powerless girl with precisely one friend. (Two, if we count Jesse who never gets mentioned after the pilot again but WAS introduced as having been friends with both Xander and Willow for ages.) Powerful witch Willow, by contrast, can contribute to world saving (which also means she doesn't have to rely on Buffy to save her all the time), is popular at college, and admired by Tara whom she falls in love with. Powerful witch Willow also has the means to do something about emotional misery, to use a magical short cut, and if the first attempt doesn't work out, the later one - putting a "forget" spell on Tara to make her forget an argument they've had - does. Of course, this is after Willow also used magic to reverse the most irreversible misery of them all - death - by resurrecting Buffy. The narrative being against Willow at that point, her use of the "forget" spell comes to light, and her second, even more disastrous use of an amnesia spell even quicker. In her brief time as supervillain by the end of the season - precisely what the Trio wanted to be but never managed - her solution to misery after immediate vengeance doesn't do is even more devastating : she wants to end the world.
Regina could relate. Regina, as opposed to Willow, didn't grow up in an outsider or (like her own mother, Cora) in an underprivileged position, but she did grow up with a constant sense of powerlessness due to her mother micromanaging just about everything about her and not allowing any other future than the one she, Cora, intended for Regina. When Regina starts to use magic, it is to free herself of her mother, and to regain some control of her life. She also at that point has still hope to use magic to resurrect her dead lover Daniel. When this doesn't work out, Regina makes the first steps to the Dark Side by being willing to kill other people in order to gain more magical power, but she still is capable of doubting whether or not she wants to continue on this road, as the more recent Tinkerbell flashbacks show. Once she abandons said doubts, the way Regina uses magic to gain power, vengeance but most of all that elusive thing, happiness, culminates in the curse, which among other things is a gigantic Forget!spell, in effect ending one world (that part of the Enchanted Forrest survives wasn't Regina's intention and is due to her mother having arrived just in time to use a spell protecting the corner of it on which she herself was) and creating a new one, with false memories, that had her at the center. That this didn't provide her with emotional satisfaction beyond the initial phase doesn't mean Regina thereafter gives up on the principle of magical short cuts. But in terms of where her longer arc seems to be going, it's fascinating that the next mind altering spell she uses, she uses on herself, and does so in order to to be able to take the long path with someone, to borrow a Doctor Who term. Regina figuring out that baby Henry could mean the end of her rule of Storybrooke and deciding to keep him anyway, but in order to be able to live with him without constantly worrying using an amnesia spell on herself is a fascinating bit of foreshadowing to something she'll do later, and an interesting twist on the whole "how dodgy is memory alteration?" question - because she does it to herself.
When Willow makes Tara forget about their argument, she doesn't see that as a violation, but Tara - who grew up with her father and entire family other than her mother telling her she was a monster and making her afraid of herself - sees it that way. Regina knows that what she does to the people from the Enchanted Forest via the Curse is a violation - that's the whole point, you could say - and she certainly is aware of this when giving Belle her fake Lacey memories (but then she never saw Belle as something other than a tool to mess with Rumpel). On the other hand, I think she deludes herself, buth as Willow did re: Tara, about gaslighting Henry being the same thing, only without magic, until Henry says it point blank to her in episode 2.02. Both Willow and Regina have an inner "but I love you, therefore what I do can't be something that hurts you, I just want you to be happy without this messy complications" justification going on. (Regina herself, course, was subjected to a different variation self justification by her mother, Cora, who was aware she was hurting Regina but justified this with the tried and true "you'll thank me later, when you figured out I know what's best" principle.)
One of the least liked plot points of s6 of BTVS is the "magical addiction" storyline for Willow that comes up mid s6. OuaT toys a bit with magic-as-addictive in early s2 for Regina, but doesn't really go with it, whereas it does emphasize Regina, at any point of her life, does retain the ability to make choices, indepedent of whether or not she's using magic at the time. The responsibility for those choices, bad and good alike, therefore lies with her. How much magic use in general in the OuaTverse is an open question; based on Rumplestilskin, Regina and to more minor degrees Cora and Peter Pan, I would say magic can amplify traits and bring out dormant qualities, but it doesn't create new personalities, though more long term use of it in all cases heightens the hubris and the idea of other people as playthings. Rumplestilskin as a downtrodden weaver would presumably never have killed or crippled anyone, but not because he didn't want to. When he tells the young Cora which particular memory allows him instant access to his magic, he also mentions how, when he had to kiss the warlord's boot in front of his son in an effort to rescue said son, he wanted to crush the man's throat. Rumplestilskin with magic can do that, and then some; he is, however, carrying out old desires. Otoh presumably the weaver would not have killed his mute servant simply because she might have seen/overheard something and then made a flippant remark about it. That would be the result of having had power for some time already. Similarly, Regina wanted revenge for all her miseries, for which she chose to blame Snow White, but this started before she learned to use magic - it started when Snow revealed she'd been talking to Cora, and Regina, unable/unwilling to blame her mother, blamed Snow. The young Regina, even after having killed for the first time and after already being skilled in magic, still has the capacity to look at herself and wonder, to not want to end up like her teacher; magic hasn't taken that from her, which also makes what follows her responsibility. Conversely, the older Regina is able to use her power and still start to accept responsibility, which she does in the s2 finale, instead of blaming her own deeds on other people (usually Snow). In s3, we see her teaching Emma how to use magic, which is part of their overall growing closer while focusing on saving Henry, and as opposed to Regina's own lessons from Rumplestilskin, it's notably free of manipulation.
One of the first scenes Willow has in s7, after her breakdown in the s6 finale, has her and Giles practising magic (making a flower grow), and in a Doylist and Watsonian effort to fix some of the later s6 implications, Giles declares that using magic never was the problem, it was the how. Indeed Willow in s7 does not try again to end an emotional problem magically; her own experience is what drives her to help Anya (or at least try to) in Selfless. Otoh you do have examples of Willow's subconscious lashing out at herself via magic means, of magical self punishment - her brief invisibility, later turning into Warren when kissing Kennedy for the first time out of guilt re: Tara. But they don't involve memory alterations. Ootoh, Regina most selfless act on the show, concluding the mid-season finale, directly does. While she did grow (and was able to show concern for people other than Henry) on Neverland, Regina there still declared she didn't regret any of her actions since the result of them brought her Henry, and that having Henry made all she'd ever done worth it. Consequently, the narrative puts her in a situation where she not only has to give up Henry - or see him subjected to exactly the fate she herself devised for so many others, along with herself and the rest of Storybrooke -, but even Henry's memories of her. That Regina would choose to save her son wasn't the surprise; that she would do so and give him and Emma (who'd otherwise still end up together, but without any memories of the last eleven years and thus no relationship at all) the fake memories of having lived together (presumably her own memories of Henry's childhood, though that's only headcanon for now) was. As was, and this is also very important compared to how Regina used memory related spells before, her informing Emma and Henry first of what she was about to do, and explained why. Emma could have protested. (Whether or not Regina would have listened is another question, but for me, in terms of where Regina's character is going, it is important that she gave Emma that chance.) It's the all important matter of consent, and while neither Regina nor the show have dealt yet with what she did to Graham, in this case, both really got it.
You know, it did occur to me that the curse in the way Regina originally intended it to work (Rumpelstilskin's agenda in creating it is irrelevant for this post, as she didn't figure that one out until much later) has overtones of not one but several of Willow's activities, and not just during her brief Dark Willow phase. More than that: as her dream in Restless makes clear, years and years of ridicule and powerless high school hell as well as, if Gingerbread is anything to go buy, a dominating mother very skilled at pointing out inadequacies have left Willow with the deep seated conviction that her geeky pilot-of-BTVS self is nothing anyone (other than Xander) could ever love, and still there, underneath the cool college and magic exterior, waiting to be exposed. Now as opposed to Regina, Willow doesn't spend years trying to make people miserable, she spends years in the world saving business out of friendship and idealism, but she does develop a tendency to (try) to use magic as a solution to emotional problems, first highlighted in Something Blue, when she's looking for a spell to make all her pain over Oz' departure go away instead of having to wade through her misery day after day. Or maybe even before that, in Wild at Heart, where she comes close to putting a spell on Oz and Verucca for their betrayal but ultimately abstains.
Geeky schoolgirl Willow, to Willow, was a ridiculed powerless girl with precisely one friend. (Two, if we count Jesse who never gets mentioned after the pilot again but WAS introduced as having been friends with both Xander and Willow for ages.) Powerful witch Willow, by contrast, can contribute to world saving (which also means she doesn't have to rely on Buffy to save her all the time), is popular at college, and admired by Tara whom she falls in love with. Powerful witch Willow also has the means to do something about emotional misery, to use a magical short cut, and if the first attempt doesn't work out, the later one - putting a "forget" spell on Tara to make her forget an argument they've had - does. Of course, this is after Willow also used magic to reverse the most irreversible misery of them all - death - by resurrecting Buffy. The narrative being against Willow at that point, her use of the "forget" spell comes to light, and her second, even more disastrous use of an amnesia spell even quicker. In her brief time as supervillain by the end of the season - precisely what the Trio wanted to be but never managed - her solution to misery after immediate vengeance doesn't do is even more devastating : she wants to end the world.
Regina could relate. Regina, as opposed to Willow, didn't grow up in an outsider or (like her own mother, Cora) in an underprivileged position, but she did grow up with a constant sense of powerlessness due to her mother micromanaging just about everything about her and not allowing any other future than the one she, Cora, intended for Regina. When Regina starts to use magic, it is to free herself of her mother, and to regain some control of her life. She also at that point has still hope to use magic to resurrect her dead lover Daniel. When this doesn't work out, Regina makes the first steps to the Dark Side by being willing to kill other people in order to gain more magical power, but she still is capable of doubting whether or not she wants to continue on this road, as the more recent Tinkerbell flashbacks show. Once she abandons said doubts, the way Regina uses magic to gain power, vengeance but most of all that elusive thing, happiness, culminates in the curse, which among other things is a gigantic Forget!spell, in effect ending one world (that part of the Enchanted Forrest survives wasn't Regina's intention and is due to her mother having arrived just in time to use a spell protecting the corner of it on which she herself was) and creating a new one, with false memories, that had her at the center. That this didn't provide her with emotional satisfaction beyond the initial phase doesn't mean Regina thereafter gives up on the principle of magical short cuts. But in terms of where her longer arc seems to be going, it's fascinating that the next mind altering spell she uses, she uses on herself, and does so in order to to be able to take the long path with someone, to borrow a Doctor Who term. Regina figuring out that baby Henry could mean the end of her rule of Storybrooke and deciding to keep him anyway, but in order to be able to live with him without constantly worrying using an amnesia spell on herself is a fascinating bit of foreshadowing to something she'll do later, and an interesting twist on the whole "how dodgy is memory alteration?" question - because she does it to herself.
When Willow makes Tara forget about their argument, she doesn't see that as a violation, but Tara - who grew up with her father and entire family other than her mother telling her she was a monster and making her afraid of herself - sees it that way. Regina knows that what she does to the people from the Enchanted Forest via the Curse is a violation - that's the whole point, you could say - and she certainly is aware of this when giving Belle her fake Lacey memories (but then she never saw Belle as something other than a tool to mess with Rumpel). On the other hand, I think she deludes herself, buth as Willow did re: Tara, about gaslighting Henry being the same thing, only without magic, until Henry says it point blank to her in episode 2.02. Both Willow and Regina have an inner "but I love you, therefore what I do can't be something that hurts you, I just want you to be happy without this messy complications" justification going on. (Regina herself, course, was subjected to a different variation self justification by her mother, Cora, who was aware she was hurting Regina but justified this with the tried and true "you'll thank me later, when you figured out I know what's best" principle.)
One of the least liked plot points of s6 of BTVS is the "magical addiction" storyline for Willow that comes up mid s6. OuaT toys a bit with magic-as-addictive in early s2 for Regina, but doesn't really go with it, whereas it does emphasize Regina, at any point of her life, does retain the ability to make choices, indepedent of whether or not she's using magic at the time. The responsibility for those choices, bad and good alike, therefore lies with her. How much magic use in general in the OuaTverse is an open question; based on Rumplestilskin, Regina and to more minor degrees Cora and Peter Pan, I would say magic can amplify traits and bring out dormant qualities, but it doesn't create new personalities, though more long term use of it in all cases heightens the hubris and the idea of other people as playthings. Rumplestilskin as a downtrodden weaver would presumably never have killed or crippled anyone, but not because he didn't want to. When he tells the young Cora which particular memory allows him instant access to his magic, he also mentions how, when he had to kiss the warlord's boot in front of his son in an effort to rescue said son, he wanted to crush the man's throat. Rumplestilskin with magic can do that, and then some; he is, however, carrying out old desires. Otoh presumably the weaver would not have killed his mute servant simply because she might have seen/overheard something and then made a flippant remark about it. That would be the result of having had power for some time already. Similarly, Regina wanted revenge for all her miseries, for which she chose to blame Snow White, but this started before she learned to use magic - it started when Snow revealed she'd been talking to Cora, and Regina, unable/unwilling to blame her mother, blamed Snow. The young Regina, even after having killed for the first time and after already being skilled in magic, still has the capacity to look at herself and wonder, to not want to end up like her teacher; magic hasn't taken that from her, which also makes what follows her responsibility. Conversely, the older Regina is able to use her power and still start to accept responsibility, which she does in the s2 finale, instead of blaming her own deeds on other people (usually Snow). In s3, we see her teaching Emma how to use magic, which is part of their overall growing closer while focusing on saving Henry, and as opposed to Regina's own lessons from Rumplestilskin, it's notably free of manipulation.
One of the first scenes Willow has in s7, after her breakdown in the s6 finale, has her and Giles practising magic (making a flower grow), and in a Doylist and Watsonian effort to fix some of the later s6 implications, Giles declares that using magic never was the problem, it was the how. Indeed Willow in s7 does not try again to end an emotional problem magically; her own experience is what drives her to help Anya (or at least try to) in Selfless. Otoh you do have examples of Willow's subconscious lashing out at herself via magic means, of magical self punishment - her brief invisibility, later turning into Warren when kissing Kennedy for the first time out of guilt re: Tara. But they don't involve memory alterations. Ootoh, Regina most selfless act on the show, concluding the mid-season finale, directly does. While she did grow (and was able to show concern for people other than Henry) on Neverland, Regina there still declared she didn't regret any of her actions since the result of them brought her Henry, and that having Henry made all she'd ever done worth it. Consequently, the narrative puts her in a situation where she not only has to give up Henry - or see him subjected to exactly the fate she herself devised for so many others, along with herself and the rest of Storybrooke -, but even Henry's memories of her. That Regina would choose to save her son wasn't the surprise; that she would do so and give him and Emma (who'd otherwise still end up together, but without any memories of the last eleven years and thus no relationship at all) the fake memories of having lived together (presumably her own memories of Henry's childhood, though that's only headcanon for now) was. As was, and this is also very important compared to how Regina used memory related spells before, her informing Emma and Henry first of what she was about to do, and explained why. Emma could have protested. (Whether or not Regina would have listened is another question, but for me, in terms of where Regina's character is going, it is important that she gave Emma that chance.) It's the all important matter of consent, and while neither Regina nor the show have dealt yet with what she did to Graham, in this case, both really got it.
